Broken Facades
by A Hopeful Romantic Imagination
Summary: She was the new girl with a pretty smile, a lot of secrets and a slightly feisty side. He was the mysterious, quiet popular boy who no one truly knew of. Both were emotionally damaged and went through a lot of hardships, but they hid it all from the world behind their facades. Will they eventually break down or can someone save them? AMUTO.
1. Prologue

**Hey guys! So I decided to change the name, sorry for any confusion, since this one seemed more fitting. And as I said here's the rewrite of Broken Smile since I wasn't satisfied how the first one ended up and thus decided to rewrite it a bit differently. So yes, there are going to changes (duh else there'd be no use of making a new one). Not everything will change though, there will definitely be some things that stay the same… Some. Now, without further ado, enjoy reading!**

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**_Broken Facades_**

_Facade; a facade is a front people put up emotionally_  
_Broken; fractured, imperfect, not functioning_

**_Prologue_**

* * *

High heels made a clicking noise as they hit the cold, clean tile floor of the huge mansion. Making her way through one of the grand hallways of the mansion the maid found herself standing before the door of her mistress.

She straightened out the skirt of her uniform and tightened her bright pink hair in a side ponytail.

The maid took a deep breath and opened the grand door leading to the bedroom of her mistress only to find the king size bed that dominated the well decorated room empty. She sighed taking a deep breath and slammed the door shut.

"Where is she? Always running off?!" She asked no one in particular.

Not quite knowing where to find the girl she decided to check the kitchen. After running down many stairs and through even more hallways she ended up standing in front of the door of the kitchen to find their sweet chef cook on the floor with flour all over her apron.

"Su what happened in here?" She heavily sighed. Not only did she have to find their mistress but now she also had to help their clumsy cook.

"Sorry Ran," The maid held out a hand that Su gladly accepted "I tried to reach for the flour but it was too high on the shelf so I ended up tripping ~desu"

Once she finished dusting off her hands Ran went straight to business "It's alright Su, have you seen _her_?"

Su giggled "She ran off again ~desu?"

"Yes, now please tell me you know where she is!"

"I'm sorry Ran, I haven't seen her ~desu" Ran groaned and continued her search.

Maybe Dia knew where she was. Dia just had a thing for people, she surely knew where their mistress could be, at least Ran hoped so.

Another flight of stairs and a whole lot of hallways.

"Dia!" Ran exclaimed in a whiney voice.

Dia giggled already having a feeling where this was going "Sorry Ran, I don't where she is"

Ran groaned "Ugh, this sucks! Why do I always have to play hide 'n seek with her?!" She exclaimed, childishly stomping her foot to the floor. "Don't you have single clue?"

"Sorry, try Miki"

"And where is Miki?"

"Still in her room"

She angrily stomped her way up _another _flight of stairs. "Geez, I love this job and everyone here but sometimes it's a real pain in the behind" She muttered.

She threw the door open not even once considering that the levelheaded artist could be sleeping. "Miki! Have you seen Amu?!" She exclaimed much to Miki's annoyance.

Ran heard a groan coming out of the dark room before a pillow was flung at her head "Shut up! You're noisy…" A grumpy voice said from beneath the bed sheets.

Ran quickly shut the door before an alarm clock hit her. She sunk to the floor leaning against Miki's door. "Geez where could she be?!" At this question Ran nearly pulled her pink hair out of her skull. Then it hit her. "Of course! How could I have been such an idiot?!" She got up and quickly ran towards the huge garden. She prayed that her mistress was in the garden since she was starting to get sick of this game of hide 'n seek.

* * *

"Good work, Ikuto" His boss praised him.

"Thanks manager, have a good night" He had just finished cleaning the last table and could now, after a long night go home.

"You know Ikuto, I could switch your shifts so you could come here earlier"

"Thanks, but no thanks. I enjoy my nightshifts here. Besides only a few work at night so I think it'd be best not to change my shifts"

"Come on, son. It's dangerous this late out and this can't be good for your academics either"

"I'll be fine. You worry too much manager! See you tomorrow" With that Ikuto left.

He heavily sighed, back to the hell hole it was. Standing in front of the house he frowned. It looked so normal as if a happy family lived here, but in truth he was stuck in here with a alcohol addicted head hot that he was forced to call is foster dad.

He was never home around this time anyway. Usually Kazuomi went out at night, drinking in some bar while trying to hit on a girl that could be his daughter.

Ikuto just hoped Kazuomi hadn't locked him out. He tried opening the door only to find it locked and all the windows were closed as well. He cursed inwardly, he had jinxed himself. He seriously needed to get a spare key. Oh well, to Kukai's it is. Too bad Kukai lived 6 blocks away.

Once he stood in front of Kukai's house he climbed through his friend's bedroom window. Kukai had gotten used to Ikuto occasionally crashing at his place so always left his window open for him. His brothers had come used to it as well, so he could've easily come through the front door but Kukai's brothers were… Well, annoying. Thus Ikuto tried to avoid them.

"Hey Ikuto!" Kukai greeted him.

"Yo"

"Forgot your key again?"

"…Yeah" Though that was a lie, Ikuto didn't have key to begin with. Kazuomi never gave one to him nor did Ikuto ever find the time to get one.

"Man, you've got to stop that! What if I go on vacation? Or move? Where would you go?"

Ikuto shrugged "I'd figure it out" He sluggishly walked over to Kukai's closet and pulled out a futon. Yes, that's how often he came over here. You know when people say 'Just make yourself at home'? Well this practically was Ikuto's home.

"You're way too careless"

"And you worry too much"

"Whatever just go to sleep kitty cat"

At the nickname Ikuto groaned. Somehow Kukai had once found Ikuto playing with a ball of wool and since then Kukai called him that.

"I hate you" Ikuto grumbled

Kukai laughed "Love you too, sweetheart!"

Ikuto rolled his eyes getting comfortable on the futon. Kukai might've been his friend but he sure was strange. Snuggling within the sheets of the futon he let sleep overtake him.

* * *

"There you are!" Finally, after all this searching her mistress was indeed in the garden.

"Hey Ran" She absently greeted, watching from behind the big stone fence. She saw teenagers and kids merrily making their way to school while adults went to their job or simply roamed around the street. Some rode bikes, some walked and others were in a car. She sighed before finally turning her attention to Ran.

Ran frowned, she knew how badly her mistress wanted to go outside but still had to scold her for making Ran look all over the mansion for her. "Geez ma'am you had me looking all over the house for you!"

At this she giggled "I told you Ran, stop being so old fashioned! My name is Amu"

"Fine, Amu-sama"

"No just Amu"

"Amu…" Amu smiled "-sama" And there went her smile.

"Geez never mind," She fumed "why are you looking for me?"

"Well, your parents sent you a letter" Ran suddenly pulled out an envelope from who knows where.

"A letter for me? About what?"

"Dunno I'm not allowed to open it"

Amu opened the envelope and began to read.

_Dear Amu,_

_We have made a very big decision that can change a lot_

_Now don't be scared this doesn't necessarily have to be a bad change_

_What we are talking about, well perhaps we should first tell you our reasons since you will probably be pretty surprised_

_You are going to take over the Humpty Association when you are older and we kept you inside to kept scandals or rumors about you from leaking, those could be bad for our name after all but you have never been outside and therefore don't know much about society and the people in it_

_Now we don't want anyone to know who you are. Anyone!_

_You… Are going to public school._

And the letter fell on the floor. "Oh my god…" Amu whispered, eyes widening.

"What is it?!" Ran was worried, who knew what was in that letter. She picked it up, read the contents and had the same reaction as Amu.

They looked eyes and screamed. "Oh my god I'm going to school!" She ran around the mansion and kept yelling this until she was out of energy.

"Oh no, what are we gonna do? You've never been outside! With so many kids and in school! Teenagers suck! High school sucks! Oh my poor baby!" Ran panicked.

Amu was up in her room and smiled at the now nearly empty streets and then eyed the nearest school. Seiyo Academy, it looked like a castle but indeed was a public school. "Maybe things will get better"

* * *

"Damn Kukai, bastard never wakes me up!" Ikuto complained as he jumped out his friend's bedroom window. He rushed over the streets to find them nearly empty it seemed everyone was already at school. Luckily Ikuto knew a shortcut. Through a few alleyways and some rich neighborhood.

He made his way through the alleyways as if he was a cat, Kukai's nickname for him was quite fitting after all, he then ran through the rich neighborhood passing a lot of mansions and it seems each got more impressive than the one before.

What caught his eye was a pinkette on a balcony in one of the biggest and grandest mansions in the whole neighborhood . She looked around his age and was rather pleasing to the eye. But wasn't she supposed to get to school? Well, that was none of Ikuto's concern. The only thing he should worry about was getting to school on time.

What neither knew though was that they'd be seeing each other a lot more often…

* * *

**Done! I know it took a while but my keyboard decided to fuck me over so some of the keys didn't work making it terribly difficult to type just about anything, especially a story. I tried copy and pasting the letters through Youtube's keyboard but after a while got a little tired from doing so all the time but my keyboard works again and I was able to type this! Yeah! So, I find this one better than the first one since I actually got Ikuto in the first chapter and he isn't so OOC. We didn't get too much of a look into Amu's personality but don't worry it'll happen ;) I just hope the characters won't fall into the background and stuff like that, since that was what mainly bothered me in my first attempt. Well enough of my chitchat. This was a rather long AN after all, haha. Hope you enjoyed. Review Please!**


	2. The Encounter

**Hi…? I know it's been a while. My laptop broke down so I couldn't write :/ It's working again now! So expect more frequent updates on all three of my on-going stories and I'm thinking of a new story, but I probably won't be publishing it anytime soon. Anyways I've kept you guys waiting already for… over two months. T-T I'm sorry for being a bad author! Let's get into this chapter already, shall we? I hope it was worth the wait. Thanks for reviewing StarElsie, Psht who needs a name, Guest and Masked-Secret-Neko**

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**_Recap_**

_What neither knew though was that they'd be seeing each other a lot more often..._

**_End of__ Recap_**

* * *

The Hinamori manor was always quiet and peaceful, being that it only held four people. However a certain Monday morning was different and thus very rowdy, much to Miki's distaste.

"Amu-chan, breakfast is read ~desu"

"Don't forget your lunchbox! Oh and be careful!"

"Good luck on school Amu-chan! Maybe you'll even find love ~!"

"D-Dia!"

"Shut up already…" The bluenette muttered, stuffing her face in a pillow hoping it would block out the noise.

A painfully loud yelp echoed through the ginormous house and Amu yelled, "Dia, I am not wearing that!"

"Eh? It looks really cute on you though, plus it shows off your nice figure" She giggled

At that Miki reached her limit, no one disrupted her sleep and if someone would they'd have to pay the price.

She grabbed a cute outfit she had been working on for a few weeks and angrily stomped up the stairs towards Amu's bedroom.

The door was slammed open which startled the four quarrelling girls. Miki threw the outfit in Amu's face yelling, "Now stop screaming, you noisy brats!" and went back to her room.

For a moment the girls just stood frozen in place, not quite sure how to react to the usually calm and collected artist's outburst.

"Well then, I guess I won't have to help you pick out an outfit anymore"

"I'll go prepare your bag Amu-sama"

"Then I'll clean up the kitchen ~desu"

Despite the fact that the peaceful atmosphere the mansion often held returned, Amu was still over the moon. She had butterflies in her stomach and it seemed no matter how hard she tried, she was unable to wipe the grin of her face as she struggled to put on the denim dress Miki had, rather angrily, given her as quickly as possible.

The last time she recalled being this happy was when her little sister was born. Just like that day thirteen years ago, today too nothing would bring her down for she was in euphoria.

Perhaps thing were finally taking a toll and for once in her life she didn't have to be the perfect girl like her parents wanted, Amu could finally just be… her. A normal sixteen years old teenage girl with her own strengths, weaknesses, beauty and flaws.

There was one more thing she desired,

Friends.

Though Ran, Miki, Su and Dia were always around, it still got lonely. Most of the time the time they were just doing their job around the mansion, besides she wanted to make friends her own age.

Teenagers that talked about whatever they may talk about. After all, how was someone who had never talked to a high school student supposed to know?

"Amu-sama, it's time to leave!"

Hearing this Amu quickly tied her strawberry pink hair in a messy braid an hastily grabbed a pair of blue flats, racing down the many stairs of the mansion.

Reaching the end of the staircase Amu was greeted by Ran, Su and Dia's lovely smiles.

"That dress looks cute on you, Amu-chan"

"Here's your bag, Amu-sama" Ran, being as courteous as always said.

"Thanks Dia, Ran"

"Do you remember the way to school?"

"Yes Ran"

"Alright, now be careful okay, don't run into strange people"

Dia rolled her eyes, "Stop being so overprotective, Ran"

"Have a good time on school Amu-chan ~desu"

"Thanks Su," Amu slipped on her flats and opened the front door, "I'll be on my way now"

If it wasn't for the fact that she was so self-conscious, Amu would probably be prancing around with an idiotic grin on her face. Her parents had taught her better than that, though. Image was important, make one wrong move and it's all over.

It was 8:00 AM in the morning and the streets were already rather crowded. Some people glanced towards her with curiosity, but quickly looked away if she caught them.

Amu wondered why people were giving her looks, but shook the thought off.

To her, opening gate of the mansion felt how winning the final boss battle felt for a game addict, only ten times better.

Though she did her best to suppress a smile, the corners of her mouth still twitched upwards.

She looked around every corner of the street, fascinated with details an average person wouldn't even look up to. Perhaps checking a few things out wouldn't be a bad thing. Seiyo Academy wasn't that far away, besides she was extremely curious.

After about 15 minutes of looking around Amu realized that she should hurry up as the streets had gotten less crowded, signaling most people had already reached their destination.

The pinkette bit her lip with worry, getting late on the first school day was something Amu definitely wanted to avoid.

So she rushed down the streets in hopes of not getting late. However, she didn't notice a boy that was about to bump into her.

Crashing into each other, the two teens ended up painfully landing on the hard concrete sideway.

Ikuto cursed under his breath, just his luck. Not only did he sleep in again, but he also bumped into some girl, causing a delay.

"Oi, watch where you're going" Ikuto sighed getting up and wiping the dirt of his ripped jeans.

Perhaps it was because Amu had always learned to be polite towards people and expected the same in return or simply because she was already annoyed by the fact that she had just fallen on her bum rather painfully, but something had sparked up anger inside of her.

"Excuse me, but it was just as much your fault as mine"

Ikuto raised an eyebrow at her sudden snap of anger. What was this girl's deal? They had only just met yet she was mad at him.

"So you're admitting it was your fault as well," she was about to retort until he suddenly titled his head sideways, "strawberries, huh?"

Now it was Amu's turn to be confused. Strawberries? What the heck did that mean? Was he ridiculing her hair? Not that he could talk with his midnight blue hair.

Then it suddenly came to her that her underwear was visible. With her face having a near resemblance to a tomato, the pinkette pulled the hem of her dress down.

"D-don't sexually harass me so casually, you p-pervert!" She stammered.

"How is it harassment when you're basically flashing them to me?" He questioned in a monotone voice.

"I didn't flash them to you, it only happened because I bumped into you and you took advantage of that to look at my p-panties"

"I don't have time for this, I'll get late for school if I waste my time talking to little girls"

"I'm not a little girl, I'm sixteen you pervert" Only then it dawned upon her that she too would come late for school if she didn't hurry.

"Why are you stalking me?" Ikuto asked, noticing that the strawberry girl was walking behind him.

"Who in the world would stalk a pervert like you?!" This guy was pushing her buttons and she honestly never in her life, until now, felt like punching someone in the face.

"Then why are you following me?"

"I told you, I'm not-"

"Actually you didn't"

"Don't interrupt me, you bastard!"

"Little girls shouldn't curse"

"I told you I'm not a little girl!"

From that moment on they were just silently walking towards their schools. Neither said a word, but then again what should one say to a person they barely know? Especially if one of them never had a conversation with someone her age.

"Are you the girl from the ghost house?" Ikuto asked in an attempt to spark a conversation, though the boy was rather quiet, the silence was killing even him.

"The ghost house?"

"Yeah, you know the biggest mansion in Shugo street"

"I don't think so," Amu lied, after all she wasn't supposed to let anyone know who she was, "what do you mean with 'ghost mansion' anyway?"

"Well, there's a ginormous mansion in Shugo street and I bet some really rich people live there, but rumors have been going around that it's haunted"

Amu nearly choked on her saliva "H-Haunted?!" Though it may have seemed like she was scared with the way she was shivering, in truth she was holding back laughter.

"Yeah since no one ever goes in or out of it, however when I ran past it last week on my way to school I saw a girl on a balcony in the mansion"

"What makes you say it was me?"

"The hair, you don't see a girl with strawberry hair every day"

Amu laughed at the irony of that "Look who's talking"

"Touché" Ikuto almost chuckled at her witty comment, almost.

The two got along surprisingly well, but from past experience with girls Ikuto got along with, he knew it had to end soon.

"You know…" Ikuto started.

"What is it?"

"How long are you going to keep stalking me?"

At the reddening of her cheeks Ikuto smirked, teasing this girl was surprisingly fun.

"I'm not stalking you!"

"Sure" He sarcastically answered, drawing out the 'e'.

"It's not like I can help that my school is in the same direction as yours"

"Whatever you say, strawberry"

Amu wasn't quite sure whether he was retorting to her hair or panties, but either way she got pissed and slapped him on the arm.

He winced at the sudden hit of her hand, "Oi, don't hit me you feisty woman"

With a scowl she walked ahead of him.

Ikuto's eye slightly twitched at her stubborn behavior. The girl had just hit him for Christ's sake and she isn't even going to apologize.

Then he suddenly realized something, "By the way, what's your name?"

"None of your business"

"Pleasure to meet you, 'None of your business"

"How childish can you get?"

"Well if you don't tell me your name what else can I call you?"

"Don't want to"

"Alrighty then, 'Don't want to" seeing the girl so annoyed gave him slight amusement, "so why can't I know your name?"

"Why should I give it to you? It's not like you'll ever see me again"

"What school do you go to?"

"Seiyo Academy"

"No way"

"Yeah way"

"Never seen you there"

"I'm a transfer student"

"Well I go there too," meanwhile Amu was internally screaming, "guess I'll see you around then, strawberry" he teasingly winked at her.

"Don't call me that"

"I don't know your name so can't call you anything else"

Amu sighed in relief at the sight of her new school, finally she didn't have to stay near this annoying guy anymore.

Ikuto felt slightly disappointed that they had already arrived. Though he would, most likely, never admit it, he kind of enjoyed the pinkette's company, even though she smacked his arm to the point of a really big bruise.

He sighed, well at least he was on time for once. He felt a slight sense of pride knowing that he was capable of getting to school on time. He yawned, if only there was more time to sleep. Unfortunately that meant he didn't have enough time to study and work. He needed both to get into a good university and get out of that house as soon as possible.

"Yo Ikuto" Kukai called snapping him out his thoughts.

"Why you bastard, you didn't wake me up yesterday. _Again._" Ikuto glared at him.

Kukai sheepishly laughed, feeling uncomfortable under Ikuto's angry gaze.

"By the way Ikuto, I've always noticed, but why do you have such big bags under your eyes"

"Lack of sleep" He carelessly shrugged.

"Oh my! What a shame, it ruins your beautiful face, Ikuto-chan" Kukai dramatically sighed.

"I don't want to hear such a disgusting thing from you" Ikuto muttered.

"Souma-kun, Tsukiyomi-san! Hurry up or you'll be late!" Their homeroom teacher, Nikaidou Yuu exclaimed, standing near the door while frantically waved his hands.

"Well, Nikaidou's as strange as ever" Kukai acknowledged.

"It's Nikaidou-sensei for you, Souma-kun"

"He's got crazy good hearing though" Ikuto added, causing Kukai to sweat drop at the man's bat-like hearing.

"Why are you waiting by the door Nikaidou-sensei?" The brunette curiously asked.

"I'm waiting for a new student"

"Wow, really? Who is it?!"

"You'll know soon"

Noticing Ikuto's smirk, Kukai said: "What's up with that creepy face?"

"Nothing"

"Right" Kukai sarcastically retorted, taking a seat next to Ikuto.

"Alright then, students!" Nikaidou shouted as to catch the students attention, and it worked, "Today we have a new student, meet Himamori Amu"

The girl that Ikuto met this morning walked in and their eyes met for a second, Ikuto smirked and she glared in annoyance.

"Please introduce yourself, Himamori-san"

She faked a smile, "Well my name is actually Hi_n_amori Amu, I'm 16 and transferred here just today. Please take care of me" She bowed.

Silent murmurs faintly echoed through the class, people giving their opinion about her. Amu was accustomed to it, however. Her parents did it when she was younger, they said they were 'preparing her for the real world'. Since apparently there it was normal to judge someone by their behavior whether the person got hurt or not. They didn't care and sometimes even got a sadistic pleasure of seeing that person hurting and suffer. Therefore people could talk all they want. Her parents had already called out all her flaws and told her to get rid of them so their talking didn't affect her in anyway.

But, there was one things that had a negative effect on her.

"Heh, so you do have a name, strawberry"

Did the gods hate her or did they just like messing with the girl?

* * *

**Yay done! So originally this was only supposed to be midway the chapter and I was gonna introduce more characters, but I had a bit of a writers' block guys. I'm sorry, I just really didn't know how to continue and had to push myself to continue after a while. I'm really am sorry, not only did I make you all wait for such an extended period, but I also have a writer's block T-T. I know, not much happened expect for Ikuto and Amu's meeting and Amu finally going to school, but I did my best and hope that's enough… Well, hope you enjoyed. Review Please!**


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